Daemon Without Wires - A4Tech's Bloody R8 Review

Today I will talk about Bloody R8 - the newest wireless mouse from A4Tech. It has not yet gone on sale, but has already been tested in detail. The main features: metal legs, comfortable body, instant response and rich software functionality. Here you can not only customize the buttons, select different DPI along the axes, pick up macros and track the consumption of the built-in battery, but also set a unique impact suppression. By the way, the settings are stored right in the mouse, for that there is 160Kb of own memory.

It all started for a long time for me when the first wireless mice just entered the market. Tried, experimented - did not suit. For many years he sat on the wire, but slavery passed with A4Tech R4. The mouse turned out to be extremely convenient, easily switching between office mode (125 Hz) and gaming (512 Hz). The response at the same time reached 3Ms, three times longer than modern Bloody.
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But, it was difficult to call R4 gaming: everything seems to be in place, but the functionality is not enough and the rear part is too big. That played more often on the X7. But today, after spending a few weeks with Bloody R8, I don’t even think about returning to the wire, and here's why:



A good mouse begins with a comfortable grip and weight: the appearance has changed in the root since R4, except for the design with skulls, the two models have nothing in common. R8 is made of rubberized coating on top and matte soft-touch plastic on the sides. The left and right side are made in the form of ribbed surfaces, extending to the base. The toe lies outside the mouse or on the bottom, does not get tired. There is a bit of gloss, but his hand does not touch it, the bottom is absolutely frosted.

Now in detail: the top of the mouse is decorated with threatening art, accentuated by the light of the wheel, the luminous logo and the whole strip at the base. I am not a fan of such an application, it is slightly oldish, but in this case it looks more than worthy: on the rubberized surface there is a skull and a pile of bones under it. Hanging this demon, given the modern fight against piracy, can be in the role of a black flag.
The wheel changes color depending on the mode between red, green and yellow. Modes are switched by buttons 1, N and 3, located above the wheel. The logo also changes color if the mouse is recharged: the red palm turns yellow.



The wheel itself has become much better as a control: a large profile, a wide rubberized surface, a clear scrolling step and just a terrific click. The left and right buttons are interesting because they can be swapped using the Bloody application. The buttons create a single line with the rest of the surface, they are pleasant to the touch and have a confident click. The manufacturer indicates that the new buttons will withstand 10 million clicks.

There are a couple of side buttons on the left, they are initially assigned functions forwards and backwards in browsers, but they are programmable - you can assign almost anything, just like the left, right and wheel. Function keys are configured, but only in Core1 software mode.

At the bottom, in addition to the matte plastic, there are two key and extremely important innovations: a sensor without a hole, the external lens of which stands at the same level as the bottom and legs made of metal, not teflon. The second is optional, but it is worth choosing them. Metal legs are purchased for the entire life of the device, they will be enough for hundreds of kilometers (the usual Teflon will hardly be enough for 5). To be precise: the rest of the mouse nodes will fail earlier. Even so: the owner of the device will not be able to erase such legs for decades.
Feelings from the legs are unusual: the ride turns out smooth, they roll well on the tables and are compatible with game mats.
The gadget is charged via a MicroUSB-USB cable, and a miniature sensor installed in the USB port is used for control.

This mouse comes with a rich kit: there are all the necessary wires, instructions, and even more. There are only spare legs familiar to gamers - why are they needed, if the chances of extinction of the entire civilization are higher than the abrasion of the legs during the term of using one mouse?

The box, as usual, is designed as an opening lid and main compartment. You can open this right in the store and see the purchase before the purchase - convenient, clear. Once, it was this opportunity that sent me to the X7 mouse.

It comes with two wires: the first one is red-black, serves as a USB extension cable, saves the mouse charge due to the smaller distance between the signal source and receiver. The second is a USB-MicroUSB for charging the mouse. In addition, there is a rag to care for the mouse, instructions (in my set it is not) and a few stickers with the logo of the Bloody series. There is no CD with software in my set, instead there is a small business card indicating where to download the software. This is understandable: while the device reaches the customer, the software is updated once or twice. However, on sale it will appear with a disk, let's take a closer look at the matter.

The Bloody4 program is chic. Now we get all the settings, macros and functions in seven windows (the eighth is About, program information). There are three modes, the so-called kernel. They differ in work and are designed for different gamers: for RPG and Core1 Strategies, even the function buttons are being scripted. For simple shooters, there is Core2 - the function buttons switch firing modes and Core3 - the mode with the recoil suppression setting.

The software can be found in the following video:



By the way, if you like it, we have a video note about the flagship of the wired series, Bloody V7.